It’s twelve days before the 2024 Presidential election, so as I write this monthly post I have no idea who the winner will be. But if Donald Trump is elected, it
will be mostly because he has a huge, loyal following, but in part because many Democratic policies of the last decades have been so stupid and so dangerous, defying common sense, that they make any flawed but more conservative candidate seem attractive to a lot of independent-minded voters of both parties.
And a corollary to that proposition is this: Be careful what powers you give to the government, especially the federal government, because when the government gets something wrong, given its unique taxing and police powers, the impact can be devastating, and last for a long time.
Think of slavery itself, and then eighty years of Jim Crow laws. The red-lining of residential areas by the federal government, which for decades limited where Black people could buy homes, thereby helping to create the current wealth gap between the races. Giving larger payments to mothers of children with no husband in the home, thereby incentivizing the destruction of the family. Prohibition: as Ken Burns points out in his brilliant documentary, before Prohibition there was crime; Prohibition created organized crime. The War On Drugs: worse crime, gang warfare, cartels and the destruction of Latin
American governments. EV Mandates: the decimation of our once-thriving automobile industry. Defund the Police—a brilliant idea. No border enforcement: millions of unknown people with unknown motives and lots of expensive needs upending our communities, and it’s only getting worse. Along with skyrocketing drug deaths. No limits on abortion, making it legal to kill a viable baby just before her or his birth. Transgender biological males competing against and showering with our daughters. Using the law courts to threaten and intimidate an opponent. Selecting doctors, pilots and CEO’s based not solely on their demonstrated competence to do the job better than others, but on the color their skin or their gender.
Suddenly polls are proclaiming that Democrats are bleeding blue collar workers, Blacks and Latinos. If true, I would recharacterize that change as “Losing the Common Sense Vote.”
Common Sense is created by everyday experience, family influence, observation of outcomes, and logical reasoning. These foundational inputs transcend race, gender and, apparently, even political preference. So it’s really no wonder that the Common Sense Vote is turning against the policies of the progressive wing of the Democrat Party, which is now clearly in charge of that institution.
Whoever wins at the top of the Presidential ticket, I pray that enough Senators and Congresspeople with Common Sense from both parties will be elected to move our nation away from the terrible policies listed above which are still being practiced.
And then I hope that the new Senate and House will move us firmly in the direction of simpler policies which reduce the federal government’s involvement in and policing of our daily lives. Please see last month’s post for a list of some good places to start.
Except in specific and transcendent cases, like national defense and equally enforcing the rights in our Constitution, we are usually much better served by letting problems be solved at the private, or local/state government level, rather than by the federal government.
It looks like that common sense truth is finally gaining some real traction across an increasingly wider majority of our voters.
May truth and common sense win all future elections.
References: following is a list of recent posts on many of the subjects mentioned above.
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